Cheltenham Mandarin School By Ying Shi Helsby A
Cheltenham Mandarin School By Ying. Shi Helsby
一組學生 A group of students 兩組學生 Two groups of students “Group Measure” in Chinese (Chao, 1968) : Det + Mg + N where Mg denotes Group measure words “Group Measure” phrase in English (Wang, 2001) : a / number + n 1 + of + n 2 where n 1 has to be countable and n 2 can either be countable or uncountable
一群 人 An army of workmen 雀鳥 A flock of birds 才子 A galaxy of talents 魚 A school of fish 蜜蜂 A swarm of bees 歡迎者 A troop of welcomers
army flock 一群 galaxy school swarm troop “群” can be applied to all animals in Chinese but … expressed in numerous ways for English!!
However, … glasses 一副眼鏡 一條褲子 A pair of 一對手套 trousers gloves Violates the specific property of English “group measure words”? English more imaginative for animal groups (group property) but not for static object, which has to be descriptive and logical enough. (e. g. pair – purely mathematical) Again, cultural/language convention!
一塊木頭 wood 一支樂曲 music 一篇散文 prose 一番好意 A piece of kindness 一片麵包 bread 一則勸告 advice
Classification 1. Length Chinese (English) 米 (meter)、寸 (inch) 2. volume 升 (liter)、立方米 (cubic meter) 3. Weight 公斤 (kilogram)、噸 (tonne) 4. Area 平方米 (square meter)、 公頃 (hectare)
Comparison: similarities 1. Structure 一公升水 a liter of water 兩碼布 two yards of cloth Chin Eng structure: num+Mm+n num+Mm+of+n n 2: neither [C] nor [U] usually [U] “of”: Nil obligatory
2. Serving as different grammatical functions (a) 五里 five miles (b) 五里路 five miles of road (a) 十磅 (b) 十磅肉 ten pounds of meat (a) Functioning as a noun without a classifier (b) Functioning as a classifier with another noun
3. Modifying adjective (1) 三尺長 three-feet long (2) 五米高 five-meter tall (3) 六寸寬 six-inch wide (1) 塊布三尺長。(adjective) (2) A three-feet long cloth. (modifier)
Differences 1. Different measure scales in Chinese and English Chin. (1) 畝 Eng. 1/6 acre (2) 里 1/3 miles (3) 丈 10 feet
2. Some Chinese standard measures are transliterated from English's (1) Chin. Eng. 噸 tonne (2) 加侖 gallon
3. Some Chinese standard measures not only functioning as precise units but also functioning as modifiers 升 (a standard measure of rice) 斗 (a standard measure of soybeans) 我們只是升斗市民。( modifier of 市民) 升斗 English: 升 (pint)、斗 (peck) pint peck → standard measure
- Slides: 25